Social distancing creates an opportunity for connection

This episode is releasing as the Coronavirus changes our lives and many of us are either self-quarantining or practicing varying degrees of social distancing. It is a very strange and stressful time.

Rethinking everything, temporarily.

While many of my favorite pieces of advice, like travel and concert-going -are questionable at best – there are many ways to enhance your midlife experience during these times.

Friends need your attention

One way to use new-found time at home is this: Nurturing our friendships. Maybe one phone call or long email each day. Friendships deserve our attention and can slip away like the houseplant we keep meaning to repot but never get to. One day you look, and it has withered beyond recovery.

I have refreshed a favorite episode from the 2015 archive for your listening pleasure and hope that you will be inspired to touch base with your friends, make a few phone calls, send an email or two, with the simple intention of feeding those friendships.

So, as the markets eat away at your retirement fund, you can invest in your relationships.

The Five Types of Friends

Look to pad your posse with a few of each of these types AND, when you can, play these roles for your friends.

The Fan

The Newbie

The Challenger

The Adventurer

The Historian

More thoughts about friends…

Do you have some friends or acquaintances 20 years your junior or senior? Get some, because these are very interesting people with different perspectives than your usual cast of characters.

Take a vacation from friends who drag you down. Maybe a divorce? A separation? You know who I’m talking about!

Stepping my toe out of the strict friend topic… connect with your cousins! They are built in historians and may even know parts of your family story better than you do.

Make an effort to follow up with friends who had stories in the works when you last spoke. Check-in with them and ask what happened.